andy (Andy Vaught) (10/02/90)
pollack@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jordan B Pollack) writes: > After some software anomolies, I decided to run a disk optimizer > (fastrax), which had me run chkdsk first. It found problems in a > hidden file ibmbio.com among others, and truncated it. Not knowing the > significance at the time, I compacted away. Later, when my machine > wouldn't boot, I deleted and copied both ibmbio.com and ibmdos.com > several ways, ("sys" didnt work), but cannnot solve it and I suspect > some directory tinkering might. I am runing msdos 3.30 on a zenith > supersport286e. > > I know I can fully back up my disk, then reformat it, and run > install and sys, but that will take many hours and floppies. Do any > experts know a shorter way? Thanks in advance. It looks like you're going to have to go and do a low-level reformat and backup. IBMDOS and IBMBIO require very special treatment, since they have to be loaded by a simple loader that has almost no idea of what the DOS file structure is like. This is because IBMDOS and IBMBIO *are* DOS. The following restrictions apply: 1) IBMBIO.COM (IO.SYS) must be the first file in the root directory 2) IBMDOS.COM (MSDOS.SYS) must be the second file 3) The files must be the first files stored on disk, and they must be stored in order in contiguous clusters. As you can see, after deleting these files and compacting your HD, things are truly screwed up. As it is now, other files occupy these reserved directory entries and clusters. Although it would be possible to move the two files to new directory entries, and reassign the first clusters, it would not be easy at all. I know of no program that allows one to get this "low level" with file structure, and writing such a special utility would probably be more trouble than its worth. Reformat time...